The Size of an Atom
by ProcrastinatingPalindrome
Summary: Alfred and Ivan are physics majors. Alfred has homework to finish. Ivan just wants to cuddle.


The air was full of the sound of a pencil scratching. Then a pause, the squeak of an eraser, a breath to blow away the bits of rubbers left behind on the page, and more scratching. Ivan Braginski sat up only long enough to grab his Smirnoff Strawberry (disgusting, but he had made the mistake of letting Alfred buy the alcohol that week,) take a gulp and flop back down to the floor. Alfred was still sitting cross-legged in front of their coffee table, homework spread before him.

Ivan found it most frustrating to be ignored, particularly when he was somewhat drunk and feeling especially hungry for attention and maybe a bit of cuddling, and so he rolled onto his stomach and army crawled over to his roommate/boyfriend/whatever the hell Alfred was supposed to be to him. It was always a bit hard to tell. Alfred was still not looking at him, and so Ivan inched close enough to rest his chin against Alfred's thigh.

That finally earned him a response. "Fuck off, Vanya. This is due tomorrow."

Ivan didn't budge an inch. "You should not have waited until the last minute. I finished that project days ago."

"Congrats, you get a gold star. Now fuck off. We can play later."

Ivan huffed and rolled away. He thought it would be so fun, having one of their physics classes together. They were both physics majors, but their schedules so rarely seemed to match up. He had imagined they would work on all their assignments together, but their work styles were just too different. Ivan finished every project long before the deadline, while Alfred was always a night-before kind of man.

"Which part are you on?" Ivan asked, not even trying to keep the whine out of his voice.

Alfred licked the corners of his mouth thoughtfully. "Juuust finished the bit about radioactive decay."

"_I _will decay if you do not hurry up."

"Making bad jokes is my job, Vanya. Just cool it, okay? I'll be done in like, half an hour."

Ivan grumbled under his breath and heaved himself to his feet, staggering over to Alfred's bed where he collapsed with a sigh. Alfred's bed was especially cozy, he felt. They both had the same hard, plastic-covered mattress that all cheap college dorm rooms were cursed with, but Alfred's bed smelled like _Alfred_, which made it infinitely more appealing to Ivan. Alfred was too focused on his homework to notice, so Ivan pressed his nose into the pillow and breathed deep.

It was always the little things he loved, the microscopic details, atom-tiny. He loved the smell of Alfred's bed, and the Superman emblem on Alfred's pillow. He loved the stuffed Mickey Mouse Alfred owned and always got so defensive about. He loved Alfred's constant dress code of t-shirts and blue jeans. He loved Alfred's untameable cowlick and the ridiculous amounts of hair gel he used to try to make it lay flat, but all in vain. He loved how Alfred pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose with his little finger. He loved how Alfred chewed on the ends of his pens and pencils, and he loved that he could rub his finger over them and feel the grooves left by Alfred's teeth. He loved that Alfred had reached that happy place in life where he sincerely no longer cared if anyone knew he was a nerd. He loved when Alfred let himself be passionate and excited and absurd and happy no matter what anyone else said or thought. That was the most beautiful thing of all.

"Hey, big guy?"

Ivan blinked up from the pillow sleepily. "Hm?"

"I think you dozed off there for a bit. Homework's done!" Alfred grinned and plopped down on the edge of the bed, tugging off his jeans until he was clad in only a t-shirt and boxers. Hulk boxers today, Ivan noticed. "We can have some power cuddling now, if you're still game."

"Always game," Ivan sighed peacefully, scooting over to make room for Alfred and then curling close and counting all the atom-tiny things, the weight of his arm over Ivan's side and the slight soft layer on his stomach and shape of his ears and the steady rhythm of his pulse...


End file.
